Both have wonderful families and their wives spoke more eloquently than they did.

It leaves us with a gruelling campaign and the largest television advertisement blitz in political history ahead of us. Perhaps the presidential debates will provide a defining moment, allowing swing voters to shift decisively to one candidate.

But it seems more likely that the campaign will resemble trench warfare. It will make the presidential race both exciting and dispiriting at the same time. Exciting because the outcome will be unclear until election day; dispiriting because it will become overwhelmingly negative and personal.